Team Lotus have ‘Useful’ Friday of Practice in Montreal

Mike Gascoyne described Team Lotus‘ Friday in Montreal as ‘very useful’ and ‘good preparation’ for the Canadian Grand Prix on Sunday as the two drivers completed 130 laps between them.

Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen finished the day as the sixteenth and seventeenth fastest drivers, respectively.

“A very useful day for the team and good preparation for the weekend ahead,” said Gascoyne, summarising the two practice sessions. “Both drivers completed their full programmes and we ran all day with no mechanical issues on either car. This morning we ran on the development tyres and both the primes and the options in the afternoon and were pleased with how well all the compounds behaved. We have definitely made some progress on the setup, particularly on Heikki’s car, so that goes down as a good day.”

Kovalainen explained more about set-up progress that Gascoyne mentions as he discussed his day in the T128: “Overall I’m pretty satisified but it was a bit of a strange day,” said the Finn. “In the early runs this morning it felt like one of the hardest Fridays I’ve had this year in terms of the balance and overall performance of the car, but as we kept putting more laps in we made some good improvements with the brakes and the setup and I think we pretty much got what we wanted out of it by the end of P2.”

Trulli shared Gascoyne’s positive perspective on the day, but is wary of the rain forecast for the next couple of days: “That was a good Friday for us,” said the Italian. “We ran well all day with no problems, got through the tyre evaluation programme and put good mileage on both the compounds. The grip level this morning was as dusty as we expected it to be and then it improved throughout the day, but with wet weather coming I think it will be harder work for everyone over the rest of the weekend.”